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In 1999 she won the Best Actress award in Burma’s version of the Oscars.

 

Musician________________________________

Maung Maung Zaw Latt/Htoo Ein Thin

 

Burma lost one outstanding pop musician in 2004 but watched his protege gain in stature.

 

When Htoo Ein Thin died in August 2004 he left a gap that music-lovers said would be very difficult to fill. But many believe guitarist Maung Maung Zaw Latt could be the man to do it.

 

Maung Maung Zaw Latt, lead guitarist of the popular group The Ants, isn’t eager to assume his mentor’s mantle. “It will be hard to find a new genius like Htoo Ein Thin,” he says. “He left a huge vacuum in the Burmese music landscape.”

 

Htoo Ein Thin broke new ground on the Burmese music scene in the 1980s with his own compositions, arrangements and his singing. At the start, his style seemed to emulate the Bee Gees and even the Beatles, but he went on to impose a personal stamp that could stand comparison with international performers.

 

Born in 1973, an ethnic Inn-Thar, Maung Maung Zaw Latt displayed talent early on, writing his own compositions and playing the traditional pattalar, a xylophone-like instrument, while at high school.

 

“Though I never studied music systematically, I tried composing and even selling my songs to singers ever since I was a teenager,” he told The Irrawaddy. “I was influenced in those days by the British rock band Queen and its lead singer Freddie Mercury.”

 

His academic studies didn’t suffer because of his interest in music. He studied medicine and graduated in surgery in 2000.

 

At the same time, Maung Maung Zaw Latt and some friends founded The Ants, recorded two albums and won a big following of young fans.